Green and pleasant island

The Isle of Wight wants to become self-sufficient in energy

ECOISLAND is a group so green that the invitations it sent to an event at Britain's House of Commons were printed on recycled paper embedded with meadow-flower seeds (just plant, water and watch them grow). Its aim is to make the Isle of Wight, off Britain's south coast, energy-independent by 2020. The island is often viewed as a quaint place a decade or so behind the times. But if the project, launched on November 15th, comes off, the Isle of Wight could be in the vanguard of an environmentally friendlier future.

Ecoisland plans to install solar panels on roofs (the island is one of the sunniest places in England), insulate houses better, make greater use of geothermal, wind and tidal energy, and generate power from waste. There are also plans for electric vehicles that residents and visitors alike can hire. Locally grown food would be delivered through island-wide supply hubs. A concerted effort is under way to reduce water use and capture more rainwater (about one-third of the island's fresh water at present is pumped from the mainland).

This all seems very cosy, but what gives Ecoisland an edge—apart from its energetic and auspiciously named chief executive, David Green—is the array of national and international companies which have agreed to take part. These include IBM, Cable &Wireless and Silver Spring Networks, which together with Toshiba, will be working on smart-grid technology and energy-storage systems. Toshiba is doing similar work for the Japanese island of Miyako.

British partners include Southern Water, a utility, SSE, an electricity supplier, and ITM Power, which makes electrolysis systems that generate hydrogen from water. The hydrogen can be used as an energy store and to power cars and vans. Graham Cooley, ITM's chief executive, says an island provides a natural boundary within which the benefits of integrating sustainable services can be more easily explored.

Mr Green says that the partnership has already raised £200m ($315m) in private funding. Ultimately, he hopes, the acquired eco know-how can be exported to other places. By then his business cards, which are also meadow-seeded, could be blooming all over the place.